On another post Anonymous wrote:
I believe that this should be a new post.
Could the person who posted the youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoyt0UnDrg4
please explain the content. The video has been removed by the person who posted it.
I've been out of town and am trying to catch up. So much has occurred in such a brief period.
15 comments:
Oops, didn't realize that link actually got posted. It was an incident that took place at U Prep where a student came up behind when a teacher was teaching and bopped him in the head. The teacher was not injured and handled the situation really well. At the most recent agenda review admin discussed how U Prep has asked for help and they are getting training from Success Schools of Philadelphia.
Actually, the student was cruising the room before going up and grabbing the teacher's head and yanking on it.
I'd agree that the teacher handled it as well as could be expected in the circumstances. But it's never good to have a kid cruising the room and not much instruction going on...though I'm guessing it's fairly typical for a fair percentage of UPrep classrooms.
A couple students had their heads down on their desks, and the incident seemed to be planned out (another student was obviously ready to video what happened). The teacher seemed to be making a good effort to teach but the student seemed more interested in causing a disruption.
The teacher said the student would be out of there for the rest of the year, and the student's likely response was So what? Students are more likely to care about being at a school that is not just telling them to focus on getting to college but also has plenty of sports and activities and an enjoyable school culture right now.
*The teacher seemed to be making a good effort to teach but the student seemed more interested in causing a disruption.*
You saw that and most people would see that, but I promise you that if that teacher were being observed, it would be very bad news. Doesn't matter if the kid(s) had every intention of disrupting, had something happen just beforehand that sent him over the edge, etc.
It merely means the teacher hadn't created a good relationship with that student or wasn't engaging enough or ...
Because right now, it's always the teacher's fault. Even if s/he is assaulted, it's the teacher's fault (because that is clear evidence that the teacher must not be good enough, by their definitions).
Questioner:
Be careful about the opinions that were spoken by administration on behalf of the Milliones UPrep team of visitors to Success Schools in Philadelphia. Many of the team members opinions were not similar nor included in comments heard at Agenda Review.
This system focuses entirely on "behavior modification" techniques and NOT on academic achievement.
Here is a summary of the data on the Success Schools that were visited in Philadelphia.
SUCCESS SCHOOLS in Philadelphia
SUMMARY: 2011 PSSA Proficiency Rates
John B. Stetson Middle School
Reading 33% Math 50%
OLNEY High School West 704
Reading 15% Math 18%
OLNEY High School East 705
Reading 19% Math 15%
(Behavior may be improving in these schools but academic achievement is DROPPING by 9 TO 16% in the High Schools and there is no previous data on the middle school.)
This program is on the Agenda to be adopted at Faison, King and Milliones U-Prep without being vetted or discussed by Community and University participants.
I know our topics get convoluted, but the idea of bringing in yet another program to solve behavior at King, U Prep, and Faison is rather odd since today in U>S.A. Today it is written again:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-05-20/teachers-schools-education-last-in-first-out-lifo/55096382/1
these are our most effecdtive teachers. I'm not sure if this should go under our seniority discussdion or a new topio-- but new consultants being paid (not vetted), very low scores according to Business Times, and not wanting to use seniority as a fair measure seen to be intertwined insanity. And now our lowest scored schools are making a national newspaper to "save the teachers?!?" And no I'm not critcizing those teachers-- just the system that is praising this situation!
Two pronged answer:Another consultant group brought in to save our schools. Why this school is failing is due to the board members for creating this school as dumping ground for students that are unable to get into a magnet school.
USA Article
As for LIFO. if the program at Faison is so great, thus any number of teachers can replace the laid off teachers and the Program will work.
Until Faison’s PSSA scores for this year are published, all we have are gibberish statements of gushing synonyms and verbs. I expect this school to show AYP with their ushing, especially since they gush.
After all the years this school has been open-we finally hear improvement from gushing. It’s an hypocrisy.
What about the spiral turns at Westinghouse and UPrep-hire a bunch of consultants.
LIFO fits no administrator-Lane and her lady friends at the Board should be let go.
If I hear more rambling like Mr. Sumpter’s dissertation of an effective teacher at the recent Agenda Review Meeting.
I will rewrite my thesis and cite him
If you go back and read past posts-it is amazing how the language is very similar and sentences in the USA
article.
This school is a walking disaster. What an unsafe environment for teachers and students alike.
So does anyone else find humor in the fact that UPrep is supposed to be partnering with Pitt to tackle problems like this??? I know we heard vague references to problems in paradise among the two institutions in an article in City Paper last year (note that the PG never touches this story in any substantive way). But Lane and Lesgold were pretty tight-lipped about what the real problems were.
So where's the U in UPrep??
There is one sweet, young, intelligent white woman who is stationed there as the University of Pittsburgh 'person."
She tells us, as did Alan Lesgold and Louis Gomez, that she/they have no influence over or capacity to change what the District requires.
Their hands have been tied, therefore, it is what it is.
She has told us that the money runs out after next year and she will no longer be assigned there.
Enough said?
(No, it is really not "enough", but we're trying to distinguish fact from opinion and sticking to it. It's a PSSA skill!)
It was never really clear if the U stood for the University of Pittsburgh, or the university preparatory education students were to receive, or both. PPS itself may not have been sure what it would stand for.
Well, the University of Pittsburgh was paid (in various ways) more than a million to prepare Milliones students to be University-prepared, whether it be to enter Pitt or elsewhere.
The point being, neither of these propositions was even close to being fulfilled after four years of payment and involvement.
Everybody moves forward successfully without a look backward, EXCEPT the STUDENTS.
And, NO ONE (Pitt or PPS) is "ACCOUNTABLE" ???
Nice Post Thanks for IT :D
What about the bomb threat that was hush hush at Prep? Or the Beebee gun a middle schooler brought in the building?
So much going on, yet PPS covers it all....
B-B gun? Are you kidding me? That is horrible, and it did not hit the news like the B-B gun incident in Ohio? Wait, are you telling me that there was a bomb threat at U-Prep and the city police and bomb squad were not called? That is right next to Pitt and Western Psych. KDKA has to get on this, just like the recent coverups at other schools. How do the teachers do it at that horrible, horrible, place. I keep reading about rape, guns, bomb threats, and physical assaults and it is called A "PREP" school; is that some kind of
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